Season 6, Episode 8: Last Comic Standing Results

If you missed last night’s “Last Comic Standing”, don’t fret too much, because you didn’t miss much. The show was drawn and tiring. The final face-off was OK, drawing the occasional laugh, but overall, just not too funny.

Bill Bellamy, the talented host, is always energetic and a great cheerleader for the show, but he can’t carry it by himself. He needs a bit of good humor from the contestants.

If you want to see how exceptional Bill is as a talent, check this out… It is reverse racism, which I find black comics abuse, but it is funny and in good humor.

Last week, if you recall, Esther Ku and God’s Pottery were eliminated for calling out Iliza Shlesinger, who got over 60% of the vote with what seemed like a mediocre performance. Iliza drew in the audience well enough to garner votes well in excess of the differential between her and Ku. God’s Pottery came up short being too limited in their humor. They have a niche, but it is too narrow. It is akin to “Alter Boys” off broadway, amusing for a short period, but getting old really fast and leaving the audience looking for the nearest exit.

This week, though, Iliza may have shown why she won last week. This week it came down to Paul Foot, Iliza and Papa CJ. And this week, Iliza went second, not last, giving the advantage to the Indian comic, Papa CJ.

It started off with Paul Foot. You had to feel sorry for him. He seemed so nervous about his material and being on television. He got the audience laughing, but he was real slow to start. His first joke seemed to go on forever. And his best joke was that a living room is the place we go to die because we can’t hang out in the hallway or bathroom. It was humorous, but not of the quality it would take for the first person to win the face off.

Then, Iliza (who now has first name status, huge advantage) came on. The comics did not vote her into the face-off this week. She was called in by Papa CJ to get revenge on her for voting for him the week prior. Now, this is a stupid tactic. Iliza should have been avoided. She just won the week before. She was on a roll and the audience was already familiar with her. Plus…she was in her element. She is an American comic that lives in the western US totally at home in LA. This was not the time to test her again after she just sent Ku packing, who, in our opinion, is better than Papa CJ or John Foot.

Well, Iliza is clever. She used specific jokes to get the audience to identify with her. For example, she used the video game “Oregon Trail” to draw people in because she knew many would have played the game. This got a the bulk of the audience into the act, which demonstrates that Iliza knows how to lead an audience.

What became most evident about her in this performance is how she uses her body to perform. In last week’s performance, it was not as apparent, perhaps because she did not want to play that card against Ku, who is much cuter. But in this performance, she wore a very low cut blouse and did over a dozen frontal dips for the audience to make sure she gave the best view inside. It was her ace in the hole, her major differentiation and her best physical feature. She used it well.

Papa CJ came out last and was funny at first. But he tried too hard, centering on one black man in the audience to heckle. At first, the participant seemed to think it was funny, but after jokes about gay sexual relations with the man and a number of jokes that went too far, Papa CJ commented that if the guy didn’t like it, he didn’t care because he was from the land of the Kama Sutra and could screw him in more ways than he knew. Offensive and not funny; something that was apparent on the face of the man he heckled.

Papa CJ also made a major blunder. He not only used a lewd premise for his piece, but much of it was censored. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeep. That made it less funny and the black man he chose to heckle obviously laughed less and less during the performance making Papa look a bit the fool.

So, at the end of the day, Iliza won again. Two competitions in a row!! With over 60% of the vote!!! Now, even if her cleavage flashing helped, even if her “home team” status helped, and even if in the first week she got to go last helped…that is impressive!! She took out FOUR COMICS!!!! In TWO WEEKS!!!! Actually, she took out five because one of the acts was God’s Pottery last week, and they are a duo.

Iliza is a gal to be reckoned with. She is sexy in a subtle way, and she also has a way of drawing in the audience. The guys, who looked real nervous as Iliza did it again, likely won’t be calling her into the ring again any time soon.